The Great Distraction Shifts from Covid to Russia

Fear must be maintained, or the Empire will fall

Less than a week ago, I predicted that the American establishment fearmongering narrative would shift away from scaring the shit out of people about Covid to something else, largely because most Americans are sick and tired of Covid restrictions to such an extent they are becoming politically untenable, as the truckers’ anti-mandate protests indicate.

That has already happened. Now Covid is never headline news. Instead, it’s the Russian invasion of Ukraine, how terrible and scary it is, and how Vladimir Putin is, much like Saddam Hussein and Donald Trump before him, the new Hitler. Be afraid! Be afraid!

As for Covid, well, the Centers for Disease Control(CDC) just announced yesterday(on a Friday no less; remember how presidential administrations love to “take out the trash” on Fridays?) that it is rolling back indoor Covid masking recommendations.

Meanwhile, every American state except Hawaii has now announced that they are ending Covid mandates, if not now, then in just a few weeks. None of this was ballyhooed by the American corporate media. For the most part, they just stopped mentioning Covid at all.

Instead, now we’re all supposed to be afraid of the Russians again because they invaded Ukraine. No history of the events leading up to the invasion is given, none of the reasons Putin gave for it are mentioned except to ridicule them with no serious analysis, and we’re treated to Joe Biden peering into the camera channeling George W. Bush, saying ridiculous things such as “Freedom will prevail,” which inspires me to channel Bugs Bunny: What a maroon!

An authoritarian kleptocracy, which is an accurate description of the American federal government now, cannot long survive unless a large majority of the population is distracted from thinking about all the terrible things that same kleptocracy is actively doing to its standard of living. The easiest way to do that is to scare the shit out of people with some outside threat.

For two years, it was the Covid pandemic. When that fear started to wear off, they had to find another one, and lo and behold, here comes that old, familiar Cold War bugaboo, Russia!

The Russian invasion was easily avoidable. If the Ukrainian government had followed the Minsk accords, it wouldn’t have happened. If Obama and Biden hadn’t helped orchestrate a coup in 2014 that installed a nationalistic government with strong neo-Nazi elements in Kiev, it never would have happened. If Biden and NATO had agreed to a neutral Ukraine that would never join NATO, it would not have happened. If American presidents from Clinton to the present hadn’t allowed the eastward expansion of NATO, it never would have happened.

In fact, the Biden Administration quite desperately hoped that the invasion would happen. They did everything in their power to force Putin’s hand, predicted it, and practically salivated in anticipation of it. Why? They needed another distraction.

Inflation’s at over 7% annually and they want to blame someone other than themselves, and capitalism itself, for that de facto reduction in people’s incomes. Biden himself hinted at this, saying just a few days ago that Americans would suffer higher prices at the pump and elsewhere, but would endure because they valued “freedom.”

Objectively, all of this is downright pathetic. For one thing, Russian domination of Ukraine is absolutely no threat to either the United States or to the rest of Europe. Ukraine was controlled first by the Russian Empire, then by the Germans, then by the Soviets, and soon will probably be a neutral state like Finland. Neither the United States nor Europe was ever threatened by any of those Ukrainian incarnations, and absolutely nothing has changed in that regard for centuries. Set aside any moral quibbles you might have; that’s just a fact, like rain is wet.

Meanwhile, American troops are still stealing Syrian oil, American drones are still bombing Somalia, the Saudis are still conducting a genocide in Yemen, the Israelis are still practicing apartheid, the American health care system is still a disaster for most citizens, roads and bridges are still literally crumbling, the opioid epidemic is still running riot, student loan debts are not being waived, the federal minimum wage is not being raised, corporations are still bribing politicians, both Democrats and Republicans are still willing tools of the kleptocracy, free speech and the right to protest are still under relentless attack, and the American Empire continues its steep decline towards the rubbish bin of history.

And if you think that Vladimir Putin is the new Hitler or that you should be afraid of the Russians, you are a sucker. Please think for yourself. Don’t believe what the corporate media is telling you.

Thanks for reading and have a good day.